More from Arts Preview 2012

The revolution began with a bassoon solo. The audience was soon in an uproar, factions yelling at each other, jeering and cheering the music and the dance on stage. Physical altercations broke out. The music became inaudible but the conductor put his head down and kept going despite patrons launching missiles at his orchestra. The composer left the auditorium in disgust, joining the choreographer backstage yelling instructions at his dancers. The virgin was sacrificed. The police arrived.

The premiere of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" on May 29, 1913, in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris was a momentous moment in musical history. Modernism in all its bluntness and violence and cacophony had arrived. Stravinsky's music, divorced from Nijinsky's dance, soon became recognized as a brilliant concert work, though, and has now become a staple of our well behaved concert life. Orchestras the world over will celebrate its 100th anniversary this season. Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic open their season with it. Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony perform it at the end of theirs.

This year's classical music schedule is marked with a number of anniversaries. Verdi and Wagner turn 200. (L.A. Opera remembers both of them; the Philharmonic Society of Orange County the latter.) Benjamin Britten, the greatest British composer of the 20th century, celebrates a century. (The Pacific Chorale and the visiting BBC Concert Orchestra take note.) John Cage, the radical experimentalist, is also100, but you'll have to look far and wide for his music. It's still a bit much for most audiences.

Scandal ain't what it used to be. The 2012-2013 season won't cause any, as the local performing ensembles mostly rehash bona fide masterpieces, with new music doled out in careful dollops. The times demand it; the economy does too. You don't fool with the box office. Still, in our crowded musical landscape there will be plenty, and a little bit of everything, to go around, for the connoisseur and newbie alike. Even opera has returned to Orange County, courtesy of the Pacific Symphony.

Still, with orchestras in Indianapolis, Atlanta, Philadelphia and elsewhere in deep financial straits, continuing with business-as-usual is a sign of robust health. In Southern California, the professional orchestras in Pasadena, Long Beach, San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside persevere, as do the Mozart Classical Orchestra and the L.A. Chamber Orchestra. Only the beloved Santa Monica Symphony has been forced to shut down for a year to raise funds. Los Angeles Opera has been compelled to cut back its offerings in recent years, but appears to have found a healthy balance for now. Meanwhile, little Long Beach Opera continues to shine and thrive, adding performances to its schedule even as it presents new opera in daring productions.

Carl St.Clair begins his 23rd season with the Pacific Symphony. Gustavo Dudamel starts his fourth with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dean Corey, the brains behind the Philharmonic Society, embarks on his second to last term. The Emerson String Quartet visits the Segerstrom Center for the Arts for the umpteenth time (no complaints). Plácido Domingo sings the part of Francesco Foscari in Verdi's "I due Foscari" at Los Angeles Opera, the 140th role in his storied career. Esa-Pekka Salonen, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, André Watts and Lang Lang return.

The new season looks fairly standard. Those performances of "The Rite of Spring" at either end of it are a reminder of how far we've come in 100 years. Nothing shocks us anymore. Besides, we don't really want to be shocked. It may not be such a bad thing that we'll all sit quietly and listen to Stravinsky's masterpiece this time around and applaud decorously in appreciation when it's over. Besides, some of us, at least, still think it's as radical as they day it was born and will be shaking in our seats behind calm facades.

The Top 10

'I due Foscari'

Los Angeles Opera opens its season with a rare production of Verdi's early "I due Foscari," based on a play by Lord Byron. The opera captures intrigues in the doge's palace of 15th-century Venice; the doge's son is accused of a crime he did not commit and forced into exile. Plácido Domingo stars in the baritone role of the doge (the 140th role of his career), with Francesco Meli as his son and Marina Poplavskaya as the son's wife. James Conlon conducts. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20, 29 and Oct. 9. 2 p.m. Sept. 23 and Oct. Oct. 7. Tickets are $20-$245. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. 213-972-8001. laopera.com. Also: L.A. Opera will perform "I due Foscari" in a concert version in Segerstrom Concert Hall on Oct. 1.

Emerson String Quartet

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts' chamber music series is reliably the place to go to hear some of the world's best chamber ensembles. Presented in the intimate and acoustically friendly environs of Samueli Theater, the series also attracts some of the best audiences, knowledgeable, intent, appreciative and quiet. This year the vaunted Emerson String Quartet – probably the best in the world; never miss it if you can help it – opens the schedule with a juicy program of Haydn, Bartók and Beethoven. 8 p.m. Oct. 6. Tickets are $25-$75. Samueli Theater, Segerstrom Center for the Arts. 714-556-2787. scfta.org

Ute Lemper

The magnetic and piquant German chanteuse Ute Lemper, a distinguished interpreter of the music of Kurt Weill, joins Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony for a rare performance of the composer's 1933 ballet chanté "The Seven Deadly Sins." Rounding out this "Come to the Cabaret" program are Gershwin's "American in Paris," two songs by the composer and four more by French icon Édith Piaf. The Hudson Shad vocal ensemble joins the decadent fun. 8 p.m. Nov. 8-10. Tickets are $25-$185. Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. 714-755-5799. pacificsymphony.org

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